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KSAT
KSAT-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 12, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to San Antonio, Texas, United States. The station is owned by the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. KSAT's studios are located on North St. Mary's Street on the northern edge of downtown, and its transmitter is located off Route 181 in northwest Wilson County (northeast of Elmendorf). On cable, the station is available on Charter Spectrum channel 13, and Grande Communications and AT&T U-verse channel 12. History The station first signed on the air on January 21, 1957, as KONO-TV; it was founded by the Mission Telecasting Corporation, which was owned by the Roth family, owners of KONO radio (860 AM and 101.1 FM). Channel 12 has been an ABC affiliate since its debut, taking the affiliation from WOAI-TV (channel 4) and KENS (channel 5), which each carried select programs from the network on a secondary basis (WOAI began carrying ABC programming when it signed on in December 1949, followed by KENS, when it signed on two months later in February 1950); from 1956 to 1961, it was also an affiliate of the NTA Film Network. The station originally operated from studio facilities located at 1408 North St. Mary's Street in downtown San Antonio. The Roths sold channel 12 to Providence, Rhode Island-based The Outlet Company in 1968 (the Roths later sold the KONO radio stations to Duffy Broadcasting in 1985, both stations are now owned by Cox Radio); the following year, in 1969, the station changed its call letters to KSAT-TV (in reference to the station's city of license). Outlet was taken private in 1986 and the company's new owners sold KSAT to H&C Communications. On April 22, 1994, H&C sold KSAT and Houston sister station KPRC-TV to The Washington Post Company (now Graham Holdings Company), which placed the two stations within its Post-Newsweek Stations subsidiary. In the early 2000s, Post-Newsweek adopted a unified "Local" brand for most of its television stations. KSAT briefly rebranded as "Local 12" in 2004, before reverting to the station's previous branding of "KSAT 12" (the call letters are pronounced syllabically as "K-Sat"). Although the station does not follow this brand standardization, the "Local" wording is periodically visible in the logo bug seen during the station's newscasts, which cycle between both brands (mimicking a similar behavior used by sister stations KPRC-TV and WDIV-TV in Detroit, whose logo bugs cycle between the station's call letters and channel number and their respective on-air brands "Local 4" or "Local 2"). In March 2014, KSAT relocated from its longtime St. Mary's Street studios to a new, state-of-the-art two-story facility that was built in an area that was formerly part of the station's parking lot. The building houses a large newsroom, numerous offices and meeting spaces, a convenience store-style breakroom for staff and a courtyard with outdoor seating as well as a grill and garden area. Demolition began on the former KSAT studio building shortly after the station relocated; by May 2014, that space will be transformed into a new parking lot for station employees and news vehicles. The 2000 comedy film Miss Congeniality, which was set around a beauty pageant being held in San Antonio, used KSAT live trucks and microphones with the station's mic flags in a fictional sense; though none of KSAT's actual staff appeared during the film, instead using actors playing a KSAT reporter and a news photographer in a scene in which the film's lead character, FBI agent Gracie Hart (played by Sandra Bullock), is interviewed at The Alamo. Category:ABC Affiliates Category:Channel 12 Category:1957 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1957 Category:Former NTA Film Network affiliates Category:San Antonio Category:Texas Category:Graham Media Group Category:VHF Category:ABC Texas Category:1969 Category:MeTV Affiliates Category:Movies! Affiliates Category:Heroes & Icons affiliates stations Category:Start TV Affiliates